Well, a great week has past :)

Wow, God is good, and this past week great! IDK what else to tell you all but that is just it, God's hand is still in the details of our lives and I can definitely tell that God is still gathering his elect. It is probably just me, but since I am finishing up I sometimes wonder, am i really going to find anyone solid before I go home?? Well just this past week, and especially Saturday, I know that the Lord is still moving his work forward to gather his elect. I don't have to many stories from this week, but honestly we didn't have to many "adventures" cause we were teaching tons, which i have no complaints about. One scenario I would like to tell u about is that of Saturday.

After we get done knocking doors for about 2 hours in this middle class community where people were less that open-minded and humble. We are sitting in a parking spot in the steeplechase apts (my favorite apartments in the area), and honestly i was just beat tired and so i was trying to get some ZZZZZZZ before we go knock some more. Well a uHaul van pulls up beside our car and I am like really, there is like 30 stalls and u pick next to me. But then she backs in and i dont think anything of it. We get out knock some doors and on our way back to go the car to go to life point the lady flags us down and asks for help moving. SHE IS THE BOMB. She is in the Army, just moving down here. Well after we finish helping her move she is like, let me take u out to dinner?? SO we are like, okay, but could u give us like 2 hours (so we can hit up our lifepoint service :) hahah)

Lifepoint this week was.......

We speed back to her apt. get in her moving uHaul van with her and she takes up to freaken Bonefish!!!! So if u don't know, Bonefish is life the nicest restaurant! So that was definitely a treat. But honestly the best part of it all was that she was just down to learn! Wasn't afraid to ask question, or bring up concerns, it was just a great series of events. All in all, we gave her a Book of Mormon (she says she is a big reader) and she said she would read it! We will be going back probably this week to follow-up after she gets up packed and all.

So, never underestimate God, even though we took a break sitting in the car to catch some ZZZZZ's I know God blessed us for being out and giving our all, So talk to everyone, We have the best message in the world!!!

Much Love, Seey Y'all Soon!!

- Elder Young



These pictures are from our foot golf tournament at our ward party last week.

Elder Lockhart and I road tripped :) 

A week to test me

Another week down and it is honestly just sur-real! This week has been great. Still going strong after the awesome week, last week. This week I just wanted to touch on one point and then tell u little of other things that happened.

So we hit up our favorite Life Point church again for our Saturday night concert :) and this week I felt like something profound came to me there. It started out with, if a bear came in here, would I be able to get away...... (IDK where that thought came from, but just go with it). Then I thought about the promise that we I have as a member of the church striving to keep the Word of Wisdom, that I will "Run and not be weary, and to walk and not faint." Well that thought led me to think of others similar to the promises that we have as members of God's kingdom, then also what promises do we have as simply just God's children here on this earth. So I started making a list of some of those promises, my two favorites are first, The Constant Companionship of the Holy Ghost. Currently this gift is only given to about 16 million people in the world..... AND this is really the best gift anyone could ever ask for! I definitely know not all of those 15 million recognize the holy ghost in their life or even understand its purpose. But after being on the Lord's Errand for the past 2 years, this gift is priceless, I hope none of us will ever take it for granted, and we will USE IT!!!! My second favorite promise we receive as members of the church concerns our divine potential. Hey most people we talk to are so concerned about going to heaven, that they will be satisfied with that. Which i learn that fit we are going to put titles of people going would be the Muslims, Baptists, Methodists, Buddhist, Etc...... But, we know that there is more, we have divine potential to BECOME LIKE OUR HEAVENLY FATHER. Some are scared to tell the world, IDK why??? Some of the best door approaches go something like this, "hey did u know that u can become a God one day just like ur heavenly father one day?" That usually gets them thinkin at least, even if they usually do call us cray cray. Anyway check out this great talk I found and maybe give y'all more confidence to share the doctrine concerning our divine potential. I invite u all to read this article from Brother Callister ********** speeches.byu.edu/talks/callister-tad-r_our-identity-and-our-destiny/ **********

I did get my trunky papers this week, so that is nuts, but definitely a push to do better and get in all i can before i have to board the plane. Oh, the big thing that went on in the mission this week was that the Church turn on the area book app for the our iPads. For return missionaries this will make since, for others it won't.... but there are no more binder area books!! This past week and in the coming weeks we are imputing in all the information in da cloud :) Honestly the big thing I see from this new technology is that missionaries can't totally kill areas like they could in the past. Everything is transparent, everything we do, or don't do the ward council and our mission president can see. I have grown to love that aspect, making ALL THINGS TRANSPARENT. Definitely a life lesson I hope to keep my whole life, will keep u accountable just like this mission president says in his mormon message. I'll leave u with that!

Take care, Good Luck, God Bless, See Y'all Soon!!!
- Elder Cj Young

So we mowed a lawn this week and it was so long we had to get a members like professional mower, then keep up the guard and all the grass just hit me the whole time i cut it. The only way to help it not get cluogged. 

Life Point Round 2

This was definitly a testing time, mowing this lawn blew!!

Pictures I forgot to Send

How many Transfers do we have left?? ONE!!!

Each of ur throwing up how many transfers we have left before Elder Manuma Left

This was a great group!

Reclaim and Retain Grind

First, sorry about last weeks post, it forgot to get published, so u get two this week

So if u couldn't tell, the past couple emails home were kind of downers, sorry about that. But the slums are over and it's back to the happy, party all the time missionary grind for the last 30 days. Wait, 30 days!! Still blows my mind, but until those 30 days are done, the missionary grind is only going to be picking up! We have had some awesome experiences this week! Honestly as this week went on I was like "man, I can't wait to write home about this." Idk might sound like a weird thought but it's what missionaries think about when something cool, interesting, exciting, or super boring happens.

1. First about the title of this post, "RECLAIM GRIND" for one reason of another we have been having some good luck with the less active members recently. One sister we found last week, then had two lessons with her this week. When we were calling to confirm the second lesson on the phone she asked us to make sure we could get her a ride to church. The next we actually found like a month ago..... We were knocking doors and she opens "I'm already a mormon, I am sick but would love u to come in" well fast forward a month later we finally are able to catch her again and have an awesome lesson with her and she sounds like she wants to just get back into church activity. She is great cause she just tells us exactly what she needs like, "I need you to find me a good friend I can have at church" and is not afraid at asking questions! I love love people. The Third is a family we have seen off and on, baptized like 4 years ago but have not come to church for four years...... do the math on how long they were active :) haha so when we have a discussion with them this week we showed the video "Approaching the throne of God" and by the end of they were just calling each other out for te things we need to do better. One tried to make the excuses for coming to church then the other was like "Did u just hear that man, we can't make anymore excuses!!" hahah it was sweet. Well, and He came yesterday!!! She was sick and will get her there next week but it is great to have these people rekindling there fire they all once had! Forth is our good friend Troy, I tell u his name cause i know he probably is going to find this blog somehow :) he didn't come to church this week (bailed at the last minute) but he is one that came to church, got baptized, then just dropped off the face of the earth. Anyway, we are best friends and actually went to his church with him on Saturday night which I will talk about later! But he is great! Last but not least we finally got in contact with this member that showed up on the ward roster. We are knocking on her door for probably the 6th or 7th time :) thats just what missionaries do when they really want to talk to someone. So we are able to sit down with her, turns out she is a convert at 19. Went on a mission at 25. Then after coming home she said lost her faith in Jesus Christ. Don't want to tell to much just scary to think that serving a mission doesn't mean u will always even have a testimony of Christ, let alone his church. So we set up a date to watch Meet The Mormons with her so i am sure that will wreck her!!. 
2. Second comes the "RETAIN GRIND" All three of the people that got baptized so far in this ward this year are still active! Ahhh nothing makes me happier to see, and all are working on their family history work to make it to the temple soon. So just a shout out for them, I am so happy we don't have any fall offs like the others have been :) 
3. The rest of these will just be experiences or lessons. The best one I have to talk about is LIFE POINT. hahah so this is a church in the area and we went to their Saturday evening service and it WAS A CONCERT!!! hahah no joke it was literally the craziest thing I have done as far on the mission as that concerns! We literally walk in, granted we are the only ones with a tie one, let alone a suit. Band starts playing, and this dude comes up and decides to put us front row. So let me tell u, this GIANT SPEAKER just rattled my heart for the next hour and a half. It was definitely similar to the concerts i used to go to where ur insides would hurt because the bass was so strong. Enough about the music, it was a decent service, projected on TV.... Didn't feel like a church service Christ would hold.... Definitely one of those "Draw near to me with their lips, but there hearts are far from me" 
4. So it was my comps birthday this week, and what a better way to spend a birthday than getting a Root Canal!! :( It didn't seem to bother him to much but that was definitely an exciting part of the week. 
5. Pranked other elders that live near by us. It included Fire crackers, Air Soft guns, and waking up at 5 in the morning :) yall get just figure it out from there what we did. We had it set up to be one of the better pranks I have done in my life but sadly wasn't.... I'll show yall the video when i get home. 
6. Our Lesson with Ralph this week was great. i am pretty sure I have talked about him in a lot of my past emails cause honestly I love the guy. He is just this 60 old man who I just feel like best friends with! This week we watched Jeffery R. Holland's "The First And Great Commandment." And at the end he is just like, "so when is ur church?" It might be cheating but I love to just let the Apostles do the teaching. 
7. I think it was on Friday this week, We literally lost the phone for 4 hours this week and thought our lives where going to end. Maybe cause we are just dumb but we had not idea what to do without a phone. Honestly feel like the Lord's work could not go forth with out a phone. But we did find it in my comps pants which he had not wore for like a month..... the reason it was there still boggles our mind. The Lord definitly played a role there, just trying to figure out yall :) 
8. Our Buffalo Wild Wings experience was NUTS THIS WEEK! So we had to B-Dubs runs on Thursday. Total of 32 wings which include 6 Blazing, and 4 Mango Habanero..... I was wrecked. I would not wish that on anyone. Actually I vowed that i was going to go on a juice Diet my last 30 days but let me tell u, that already feel through :/ 
9. This is an awesome story, so our appointment fall through around our area so i am just like fetch the city, I love the country. So i get on the GPS and find this place in the middle of now where and push go. HAHA elder Clarkson thought i was taking him some place to kill him :/ But let me tell u, it was a great place to knock doors! It was one of those streets where house are close together, but still in the country so u get the benefit of nice people and close homes. We found a young couple and then a younger african-american lady that has a boy friend that says she wants to get back in her church but the church she's goes to is judgmental and rude..... DING DING DING we found a dime!
10. So while Clarkson was getting his Root Canal elder Lockhart and I went our to find a solid investigator for them. Well 3 doors answer, 2 talk to us, 1 in spanish only :) The first was a 19 year old kid named Pastor Pete. HAHAH honestly he was a really cool dude. Talked to him a whole bunch, gave him a book of mormon, and leave...... He calls us 30 minutes later and tries to drop up.... Lockhart takes over the phone and rips him and their return appointment still stands. :) he went on some anti website when we left but at least was a good enough person to talk through what he found on there instead of a lot of pricks out here we meet that just drop us and don't have the decency to tell us why. Mini-exchange to find Pastor Pete
11. I was on an exchange this week with an Elder Hudson. He is a great elder, I have actually served around him before, he is from Cali, a definite beach bum but I love him to death. We did some good work though, as u can tell from the pictures :) 

Sorry I know this is a long email, I feel like y'all deserve one cause my recent ones blew. One last thing though :) a spiritual thought.


I want to close with one simply, important, and hardest concept in todays world..... PUT GOD FIRST IN ALL THINGS. So we have this inv. that is really struggling with this ************

Love, ELder CJ YOung

These pictures are from a Laser Tag place,

Elder Hudson and I after our exchange

Elder Hudson, I, and Lockhart

Fun time watching the Root Canal

Selfie for Dayzzzz

This is the epitome  of Virginia. #Tabaccostate

I was able to pull this chunk of ice out of my cup. IDK looked pretty cool

I, Lockhart, and my poor comp :""(

It was his birthday!!!

HAHAH the smile, love this brother

One our B-Dubs runs this week

The Patience Grind

HAHA this week was one that i can definitely could tell God is getting me on the patient grind. it was a struggle this week! Actually, not to bad but I definitely see my patience growing. We have been able to come in contact with lots of people but taking the next step and teaching them is a whole other story. I guess a lot of that has to do with the 4th! I do have to say that they don't do holidays as big out here but it still was a party, we had lots of fun. I am including lots of pictures this week so u can see the fun stuff we are up to!

We do have some great people we are still working with. A great family from Ghana is progressing nicely. We had a great lesson with him this past week and bore a pretty powerful testimony to us as we were explaining to him what a testimony was. He didn't really understand what a testimony was, then after he got done talking we were like "that's your testimony!!!" ahhhh that was so great!

Other than that.... the picture of the Krispy Kreme Donuts explain the next best part of the week. So there is this brother, IDK if i told u about him but he is not looking to join the church because he loves his church family to much he says but still likes us to come over. Well The next lesson we committed him to Live the Law of the Tithe, then The Law of Chastity, and then the Word of Wisdom. And we promised him a box of donuts if he went without smoking for a week. Well he did, so he got the donuts. The only bad part, and the reason we took the picture in the first place is there was a fly in the box of Donuts..... Tisk Tisk Kripy Kreme :)

But that was the week. i hope yalls 4th was swell. Definitely missed the Eagle wood Fireworks but I will get have to be there next year :0 Love yall, take care. and have a fun life!!
- Elder Young